April 18-22, 2011
Kevin Mattison watches Australian films this week, and wonders why so many of them seem to need a character who is a tracker. Follow the trail in “My Aussie double-header (insert sex joke here)”
Music writer Mike Vincent rests his ears and exercises his thumbs this week with Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic and the Mass Effect video games, which are notable for developer BioWare’s signature branching storylines. Mike has lost hours playing through the various options, and he tells you what’s kept him coming back in “Mass Effect”
It was the death of the Man of Tomorrow, the greatest superhero of all time, but it was the birth of one boy’s lifelong love for a character and a medium. Read Andrew DuPont’s “The death of Superman”
Being an adult and missing home is unspeakably lame. But if you’re lucky, it can come with a unique cast of characters and a fabulous soundtrack. Even in a graphic novel. Kate Sloan reads Chynna Clugston and Ian Shaughnessy’s Strangetown in “The home of the strange”
The Casual Gamer returns! Gavin Craig is playing Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Uncharted: Drake’s Revenge, and while Uncharted is the better game in just about every way, he can’t say that he’s not enjoying Kirby a little bit more. Also Uncharted is racist. Just sayin’. Read “In color”
Ana Holguin loves her TV, and maybe, just maybe, as James Sawyer and Homer Simpson already know, TV loves her back, in its own way. Read “Love American style: a TV story”
As terrible a baseball broadcaster as Joe Buck is, exactly so wonderful is Fox Sports Detroit’s Rod Allen. It’s partly because of his unique turns of phrase, partly because of his great chemistry with Mario Impemba, but mostly that he’s an unabashed and vocal fan of the game. Read Angela Vasquez-Giroux’s “The perfect pleasure of Rod Allen”
Jill Kolongowski had a wonderful birthday, thank you very much for asking, and a terrible morning after. What happened to this upstanding young individual with a history of moderation? Find out in “Liquid indulgence: a personal history of drinking”
